1. Supermoon is not exactly a professional term, according to PBS' "Need To Know." The term was coined by Richard Nolle, "certified professional astrologer," in Horoscope Magazine in 1976. "No astronomer would recognize the term 'supermoon.' It's not something we've ever heard of and it's not something we'd use," said NOAO astronomer and public information officer Stephen Pompea.
2. Don't expect a plague of locusts during the supermoon. Despite Nolle's claims on his website that he predicted the World Trade Center tragedy on Sept. 11, 2001 by reading the stars, the supermoon is not a predictor of earth shattering events, Pompea said. "This is not something that astronomers are paying attention to," he told PBS.
"If you try hard enough you can chronologically associate almost any natural disaster/event to anything in the night sky ... comet, planet, sun," astronomer David Reneke told News Corp Australia in 2011. "Remember in the past, planetary alignments were going to pull the sun apart. It didn't. Astrologers draw a very long bow most times."
Whew! Safe!
Well, not if you listen to planetary and geoscientist Victor Gostin from Adelaide University in Australia. He told News Corp Australia that the celestial could be linked to earthly events like earthquakes and tsunamis. "This is because the Earth-tides (analogous to ocean tides) may be the final trigger that sets off the earthquake," Gostin said.
3. When the moon is full and at its closest point in its orbit to the Earth, the moon appears 12 to 14 percent bigger and shines 25-30 times brighter, according to timeanddate.com. When any celestial body reaches the closest point of its orbit closest to Earth, it is called perigee.
4. The moon reaches perigee about every 27 days, but a supermoon only happens when the moon is both full (or new) and in perigee. The show isn't quite the same during a new moon, but the full moon in perigee occurs four times a year.
5. The supermoon on Aug. 29 will be to exactly 222,631 miles from Earth, according to Business Insider, but next month, the moon will creep even closer to us. On Sept. 28, the moon will be a mere 221,753 miles from Earth - the closest perigee of the year! That level of perigee has its own special name: proxigee.
What do you think? Are you excited to see the bright full moon or will you have your bomb shelter stocked? Or are you more worried about an asteroid attack in September? Leave your comments in the comment section below!
